AP to learn from Telangana cop lessons

Hyderabad: With Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy directing the police top brass to study the systems in other states and western countries to improve policing and upgrade their skills for crime control, especially cyber crime offences, the AP police may not have to look very far.

They plan to learn from their counterparts in Telangana state, who have upgraded themselves both in terms of equipment and manpower in the last five years which has yielded results.

Besides Telangana state, AP Police plans to study the police systems in Maharashtra and New Delhi.

“We will study the existing and new systems in Telangana state, Maharashtra and New Delhi as they have made huge strides in terms of technology, manpower, Intelligence gathering and crime control,” a senior police official from AP told Deccan Chronicle, hours after Mr Reddy made clear his priorities about policing in the state. AP police officials intend to send their teams, in batches, to these states.

Though the AP and Telangana state police were not on good terms till the Chandrababu Naidu-led TD  government was in place, the bonhomie between Telangana state Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao and Mr Reddy has paved the way for different departments in both states to collaborate and exchange notes.

As for Telangana state, the government has invested huge money and time to improve policing to make more it citizen friendly while taking all steps to control crime. Such has been the intelligence-gathering systems with state-of-the-art technologies of the Telangana state police that there have been many major operations against Maoists and terrorists in different parts of the country, including Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka and Bihar, based on the inputs provided by the Telangana state police.

Over the last four years, the Telangana state police has come out with several mobile applications like Hawk-Eye, an app which empowers common man to become citizen police, E-Petty case, which helps officers register cases on the spot, COP Connect to support professional communication and collaboration among the police department.

Importantly, the TS police became the first in the country to use facial recognition system (FRS) which can help prevent crime and track down offenders. The tool allows police to identify potential offenders by comparing a suspect's face with lakhs of digital photographs of people. The forensic experts are equipped with latest technologies to crack complicated cyber crimes.

“There is no denying the fact that Telangana state has made huge strides and there is a lot to learn from them. We are way behind them but we will do what all is required to be done and compete with the TS police,'' another AP police official said.